Rotary eClub One, District 5450
World's 1st eClub (Jan 2002)
Rotary and Electronic Communications A TimeLine
When
was the last time you picked up a
newspaper or a magazine,
or turned on the radio or the TV and didn't hear or see "For further information, be sure to visit our web site at 'www.msnbc.today.com' (or something similar)?" I seriously doubt that any of us can remember
back that far! Our senses are constantly being bombarded by this type of information. It
cannot be avoided. It
has become an integral
and important part of our daily lives as well as
our culture. It is EVERYWHERE!! It has changed the
way we communicate, the
way we do research, the
way we do business, even the way
we make purchases and perform
such mundane and onerous
tasks as doing our taxes! It has impacted our Politics and become
a vehicle for ridicule, invasion of privacy,
identity theft, personal
safety, bullying, trolling, etc. etc. etc. In
retrospect, it is hard to remember
when it all began, but
somehow we sense that it has been around forever
(which actually it hasn’t), it just
seems that way.
Think back
25-30 years (depending
on your age)! Better
yet, go to the public library (or
dig into their online digital archives)
and look up a newspaper or
a magazine dated 25 -30years
ago or
look into “Google Books / The Rotarian” on
Google and go back 30+
years. Thumb through
it and make a list of all of the references
to web sites or Email addresses.
What's
that you say? You can't find any? Don't be surprised. The Internet as we know it today, will celebrate its 31st birthday in November of 2021. That's right . . . the Internet was
"invented" (and that is the
accurate term) just 31 years
ago
and during that brief period
of time, this new means of communication has had the most dramatic
growth of any entity known to mankind in all of recorded
history. Even those who work
with this rapidly evolving medium find this to be truly remarkable
as
well as highly challenging.
Rotary's growth and use
of ECOMM
As the Internet has
grown, so has Rotary's use of everything related to Electronic
Communications. In
particular, Rotary's presence on the Internet has established a new level of club interaction and international service. It has
completely changed the
manner in which Rotary does business on a day to day basis. Change has
happened but it
was slow (much too slow for those who quickly embraced this new form of communication) but it did come and
has changed our organization forever. Today,
Paul Harris would not recognize
our organization. However, as a “forward
thinker” I believe he
would not only be amazed he
would also approve. In all likelihood, as a visionary, if he were with us today, he would probably be an early
adopter.
With the technology of the PRESENT
We are building Rotary for the FUTURE"
This is the legacy of Rotary and Electronic Communications"
Rotary Timeline in the use of Electronic Communications
|
1990 |
- Birth of the World Wide Web
at the CERN Institute
in Switzerland. Its |
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creator was |
Tim Berners-Lee. |
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1994 |
- Rotary makes
its first appearance on the WWW with the posting of the following web sites: - Unofficial
Guide to Rotary (UK). No
longer online ? First Rotaract Site
(Germany) |
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1995 |
- First Rotary District web
site appears. District
7770 (Bluffton, So, Carolina) - 200 Additional club,
district & Rotaract
sites appear. |
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1996 |
- Official
Rotary International Web
Site launches on 1/1/96 ? 340 additional Rotary Web Sites
are added |
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1997 |
- Additional 1000+
Rotary sites added |
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1998 |
- RI web
site redesigned and expanded
to reflect rapidly increasing growth in Rotary’s use of
the Internet. |
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1999 |
- “The Rotarian” magazine and “Rotary
World”
magazine go online on the RI web
site and are made available
in multiple languages. |
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2000 |
- Frank J. Devlyn,
launches first RI Presidential
web site and becomes first RI President to exclusively use Email for worldwide communications. - 23 Rotary Task
Forces launch
individual web sites. Results are an overwhelming worldwide increase in partnering on
projects of all types and the submission of requests for matching
grants from The Rotary Foundation. For the first time in the history of Rotary, The
Rotary Foundation
is unable to match all of the requests because the
World Fund allocation for the year was
fully committed. - Number of
Rotary web sites double
during President Devlyn’s year as Rotary “goes electronic” |
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2001 |
- Third Version of RI web site
introduced on Rotary’s Birthday on February 23 during the International Assembly where all Governor’s-Elect
were being trained. - RI begins “doing business” on the web with the opening of the RI Member Access
Portal (MAP) for clubs to add members, terminate members and update member information. - Online registration
for all Rotary International
meetings became a reality including the annual Rotary International
Conventions. - RI formally adopts email as its primary
form of communications. - Rotarians worldwide
can register to receive email from
RI, various Rotary
committees and the President
on a regular basis. |
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2002 |
- Complete RI Catalog of supplies, printed brochures,
etc. added to web for online purchasing. - RI continues
to “enhance” the MAP by
adding more items for club and
personal use - First Internet based Rotary Club
promoted by Rotary International and it was in R I District 5450 with name: “Rotary
eClub One” with Charter President
Rtn. John Minter. |
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2003 |
- RI Purchases “Clubmate” Software, renames it RI-CAS
(RI Club Administration Software) and
offers it free of charge via download for all Rotary clubs
worldwide. Thousands of clubs jumped at the opportunity. |
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- Majority of all official RI
publications and forms are posted to the RI Download
centre in PDF format for immediate use by all Rotarians
and clubs |
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2004 |
- Update to RI-CAS software with enhancements
? Additional features added to the
MAP - Rotary Centennial Web Site Launched
in preparation of the upcoming events - eLearning
Center goes online - Daily updates posted during 2004 Council on Legislation - District Governors and
Governors-Elect are able
to participate in “forums”
with their classmates worldwide to discuss Rotary issues. All forms related to the DG year are
made available in the DG / DGE forum area. - Numerous companies
become Rotary Licensees
offering Rotary Club
and District web sites with many features to run club or district operations: (Club Runner, Club Web
Source, etc.) |
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2005 |
- New search engine added to RI web
site in order to increase search
capabilities - Daily news items posted
on home page to keep members up to date on current RI activities. This replaces the former “Rotary News Basket”,
a weekly text only service that was discontinued (Note:
it took 10
years for this
to happen!) - Online registration
now fully active for all
official Rotary meetings and events
(ie: Institutes, Peace Seminars, Conventions, etc.) - MatchingGrants.Org web site (not official web site)
launches to provide partnering
opportunities for Rotary Foundation Matching Grants |
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2006 |
- Daily convention updates posted during the 2006
Copenhagen convention. ? DGE’s take
preliminary course work
online prior to attending the International
Assembly in San Diego. - “RI Interactive” is launched
on the RI web site and
delivered via email to all who subscribe. - Numerous monthly newsletters are now
delivered by RI via email directly to those Rotarians who
have registered
to receive them. |
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2007 |
- RI begins
RSS feeds for individuals who want to receive daily updates
from the RI website in a graphic format
via email. - The Public Relations newsletter
(monthly) goes all
electronic and is delivered in graphic
format via email to all
registered users. - April - Once again, the Council on Legislation’s daily results
are posted on the web, keeping Rotarians worldwide up to date on
how our organization is being changed through our legislative process. |
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- October -
The RI web site undergoes a major revision to its design
and operation. This new web site, including a fully
redesigned search engine was launched by
RI
in late 2007. The new site
contained many features
not previously offered including: Full site available
in all of the official Rotary languages;
an expanded download center; a full photo library for download; numerous videos for information, marketing, and recruiting
materials, to name just a few. - The new
Polio Plus Web Site is launched - Provisions are made
to contribute to polio and
The Rotary Foundation online
using a credit card. |
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2008 |
- August - RI’s MAP is updated to improve privacy and security
and to also give individual Rotarians greater accessibility to their
personal information and club officers
(President and Secretary)
greater access to club information for
more efficient operation - September – RI discontinues support for RI-CAS online
and shuts down the RI-CAS
online server - December – RI removes the free RI-CAS software
download from the RI web
site. The software is also
removed from the RI catalogue.
Discontinuation was due to the unanticipated cost of supporting the software (free of charge) to the
10% of the Rotary clubs worldwide that were using it. As a
result, clubs migrated
to RI Software Vendors such as Club Runner who offered excellent
programs at a reasonable
annual fee (depending
on the size of the club) for full
service. Clubs quickly
adopted these resources
realizing that they were able to provide much more on their websites
with the help of Club Runner,
et all. |
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2009 |
- Club Treasurer’s
and Club TRF Chairs are given “enhanced access” to the MAP so they can
download essential club reports
and information. - Rotary establishes
a presence on
YouTube, Linked in, Twitter,
and FaceBook all of which become the fastest growing
communications elements in Rotary’s history. - The MAP receives additional enhancements by providing district leaders with Rotary Foundation
SHARE reports covering the past 8 years. - RI web
team “reorganizes” the web site navigation
system and adds a new area
covering the Rotary Foundation Future Vision Plan. - The home page is updated with a new “daily news” format. Each
day, the web staff posts news items of interest and posts
important club notifications on the home page. - Rotary begins
using weekly/monthly “broadcast email” directly to members who have signed
up to receive these messages. These include the Weekly RI Update, the Public Relations Newsletter;
the Polio Newsletter; the Future Vision Newsletter, the
Membership Newsletter;
the World Community
Service Newsletter. There are others as well. Members
only need to register to receive them on a regular
basis and thus be informed of the latest Rotary news. |
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- Rotary collaborates with
Google on “The Rotarian” magazine. The entire historical archive
of “The Rotarian” magazine is made available to
Google and is made available on Google
Books beginning with the very first
issue of the magazine. |
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2010 |
- RI redesigns the MAP to make it more user friendly and give clubs more access to
historical membership information. - Additional features are
added to the MAP for use by the District and Club Rotary Foundation Chairs - New accounts
are established on YouTube, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter to expand Rotary’s exposure in all areas of
social networking. - A full library of Rotary videos
is uploaded to YouTube and
Rotary establishes its own Channel on YouTube - The online
“Rotary Minute” in video format is launched and changed on
a monthly basis to better inform non-Rotarians about
Rotary. - All RI printed publications, including training guides and materials for Rotary Officers and Committee leaders
are posted to the web site in PDF format for download and printing - All of the Humanity
in Motion PSA’s are made available
for
online viewing including all of
the videos - The 2010 Council on Legislation officially approves Rotary eClubs - The 2010 Council on Legislation approves allowing Rotarians to choose to receive The Rotarian magazine electronically rather than in printed format. - As The Rotary Foundation’s Future Vision Plan
begins its Pilot phase, all of
the 100 pilot districts were selected after
completing an extensive online
application using the MAP. - The Rotary
Foundation launches the new
online Global Grant
and District Grant application forms for use by the 100 pilot districts, thus starting what will become the only means of applying
for Foundation grants when
all districts join the Future
Vision program on 7/1/13. - Rotary launches the
all electronic “Rotary Leader” magazine which
is completely interactive
but can be downloaded in PDF format for replication and
use by club and district leaders. - The RI web site expands the “New
Generations” area of the
site to recognize this new Fifth Avenue of Service. - In November, ClubRunner, DACdb,
and other authorized
Rotary software vendors announce
they have collaborated with RI to gain access to club and
district membership databases.
This collaboration now means that when Secretaries update club membership in ClubRunner, etc., the RI database is also updated (or vice versa). This means
that now a single entry is all that is needed to add or terminate members
or make changes to member records.
(2021 Update: Eleven years after this was implemented, the system
still has “bugs” and dual
need to be
confirmed by club officers
in order to ensure that the individual member accounts in the
official Rotary International
Membership Database is accurate and has all
of each Rotarian’s information.) |
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2012 |
- Rotary club central is launched making it possible for clubs to input all of their goals for the year
and track them throughout the
year. This includes
goals for membership,
TRF giving, Polio giving, service projects and communications, etc. - Rotary Showcase
is launched making it possible for clubs to “showcase”
their community and international service projects. Photos can
be uploaded as well
as the complete “story” of the
project to be shared
with all Rotary clubs worldwide. |
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- After more than
two years of work by a team
of internet design specialists and hundreds of interviews with Rotarians who use the RI web site, on
August 25, 2013 latest version of the
RI
web site launched. Here are some of its new and very unique features: o The home page is a
“portal” that offers visitors two options: o (1) allows non-Rotarian visitors to visit one portion of the site that was specifically designed to introduce them
to Rotary o (2) the MyRotary
section for Rotarians gives members access to many areas
of the entire web site that are not available to the general public. Upon registering to use the site, Rotarians will have access to all of the features that the site offers. o The MAP is no longer a
separate area of the
web site. Instead
it has been incorporated into each individual’s MyRotary account
which is based on the member’s office(s) in Rotary
and their Rotary interests.
It will adjust and change as the individual uses the site as it
will “remember” which areas
the individual uses most often. o A Rotary Discussion
Group area has been
set up for clubs, districts,
and Global Networking
Groups to set up groups. These groups can be either public or private (by invitation only). This area of the
site will evolve as the groups
become populated. o Finally with the launch
of The Rotary Foundation’s New
Grant Model (NGM) on 7/1/13, districts and clubs will now complete all
of their grant applications online and submit reports online. |
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2014 |
- With change
in the “Rotary Master Brand” and
Rotary’s extensive focus on Public Image, the
new Rotary web site has continued to grow and evolve with more
and more information becoming available. Recent additions
include: - Rotary Brand Center that centralizes
all of the new Brand materials
for clubs and districts to use in
promoting Rotary and recruiting new members. Numerous templates have
been developed which allows clubs
to create business cards, stationary, newsletters, tri-fold
brochures, billboards,
etc. for PR
purposes. - RI now hosts numerous webinars each month to training and update members on membership,
public relations, grants, corporate decisions,
etc. All webinars are archived
and can be accessed
after the fact for
online viewing/listening by
interested Rotarians. - The new
“Learning Center”
has been established to train Rotarians in a variety of areas for
club and district leaders and members. |
|
2015 |
- A greatly enhanced MyRotary home page that automatically
changes its content based
on the manner in which each Rotarian uses
the RI web site. - The Global Rewards
program was launched which
gives Rotarians discounts on an every
growing number and variety of items. |
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2016 |
- Rotary Foundation Centennial Web
Site Posted - MyRotary Home Page
expanded to include more Rotary
links and information based on individual
Rotarians’ use of the web site - A greatly enhanced “Prospective Member”
page was established that
enables Rotary International
and Rotary Districts to forward inquiries from
potential members to Rotary clubs in the specific area where the
prospective member lives. - With the massive changes
implemented at the 2016 Council on Legislation, a significant amount of Rotary documents
were deleted from
the web site and replaced with new versions all of
which were formatted
in the new Master
Theme. This has created continuity
across all areas of Rotary
. . . Membership, Public Image, Youth
Service, Organization,
and The Rotary Foundation. - With the input from
Rotarians Worldwide, the entire
navigation system of the RI web site (The Blue Bar at
the top of every page) was redesigned to more accurately
reflect the numerous changes
implemented by the COL. In addition, the entire site’s navigation system was reorganized
to coincide with the manner in which
Rotary Clubs and Districts
are organized and
operate, thereby making it easier for
Rotarians to locate the information
they are seeking.
This input from Rotarians brought
a greater understanding as to how Rotary at the Club
and District level actually works as opposed to way in
which the Non-Rotarian web site designers believed
that it should work. There is still work
to be done, but it is greatly
improved. - The Council
on Legislation passed legislation
that eliminates the term “eClub”. Now all
clubs are standard “Rotary” clubs
whether they are “terra” clubs or “online” clubs. This
was done to show the importance and impact that “eClubs” have
had on Rotary membership over the
past 10 years. |
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2017 |
- Rotary Club Central
is given a complete makeover and upgrade which is faster,
better organized, includes
more information and provides club members with
the opportunity to incorporate
extensive information that can be utilized to achieve the Rotary Citation. There is also a Citation Dashboard that can be downloaded to keep track of the club’s progress
toward completing the Citation requirements. - Rotary Grants Center: Rotary rolled out an entirely
new section of the web site devoted to Rotary Grants
(Global, District and Packaged). The
site is filled with tools to assist Rotarians
in the grant process. Clubs
and Districts are finding the new
site to be a much needed resource that
was long overdue |
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- Throughout the year, the Rotary
Brand Center continued
to expand with new resources. In August, a new section called
“People of Action” was added to
the center with materials that can
be used for the new
“People of Action” public image campaign. Over time, it will be populated with
numerous graphics, brochures (that can be customized), videos and other materials that can help clubs
implement this new campaign to better explain what Rotary is and what we do.. |
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2018 |
- Rotary Club Central
receives another massive upgrade which
is even faster, easier to use, more comprehensive
and very user friendly. - Rotary Citation is the
new name for the Presidential Citation. It has its own
dashboard which automatically
links to Rotary Club Central, Rotary Showcase, The Rotary
Foundation, and the Rotary Membership
database thereby tracking all of the goals
as posted in RCC and automatically entering them into each club’s
Rotary Citation form for the year. In addition,
data can be added and
updated until June 30 of each year to
ensure that all of the citation requirements can be fulfilled. - The new Rotary Learning Center was launched at the end
of August with a completely
new interactive interface. There
are a multitude of courses which
are available on almost every
topic you can think of in Rotary.
It is robust, comprehensive, and very well
designed. The courses vary in terms of the amount of time it will take to
complete each one, but most
are less than 30 minutes. Upon completion, students can evaluate the course
and are then awarded a
certificate of completion that can be downloaded. If
there is one drawback to
the new RLC it is
that the courses rely heavily
on PowerPoint with no voice over narrative. Some videos are included but they are currently limited. Hopefully
more will be added
in the future. - The Discussion Groups
were completely redesigned
and the database was “cleaned
up”. Many of the groups
had been dormant for more than a year and after contacting
the group “leader”
almost all of these were deleted.
The groups now have discussion
threads grouped by topic. There
are several other changes but they are much
more user friendly and easier to navigate. - Additional features were added to the MAP to assist club
officers in their work. The
MAP is an ever-changing portal because as Rotary
changes so do the MAP requirements. |
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2019 |
- The Learning
Center continued to grow as the RI staff created
additional training programs - Rotary Club Central
continued to expand access to
the Rotary Database
to provide more historical club data - Webinars covering membership, TRF grants, Public Image “People of
Action”, etc. are being
held on a regular basis.
They are recorded so they can be viewed later
if Rotarians are not able to attend the live broadcast. - The Rotary Citation is now being automatically tracked by RI
using Rotary Club Central. In other
words, all of the requirements for
earning the Rotary Citation
are now part of the
club goals in Rotary Club Central. Once the clubs enter their goals in each of
the categories and they continue to update their progress in
these categories throughout
the year, the updates are
posted to the Rotary Citation (automatically) so the clubs
will receive proper credit. |
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2020 |
- Major changes
to the Learning Center. With
input from Rotarians (including Rotarians participating in the Leadership Academy) the Learning Center was dramatically
expanded to include
numerous courses that meet Rotary and Rotarian leaders requirements. Such
as: o Training for Governors Nominee o Training For Governors
Elect o Training for District
Governors o Grant Management
Seminar Training o Club Recertification (for Global Grants) o Is Your Club Healthy o And many more (check them out and try some of them) - Upgrade to the RI web site and Rotary Club Central - The first
RI
Convention to be a “virtual convention” (four days) that was fully
recorded (due to the pandemic). |
Benefits of ECOMM
to Rotary
Rotary has
realized many benefits from its
Internet growth and ever-increasing use of Electronic Communications.
- Improved Communications: Electronic
Communications (ECOMM) has allowed Rotary clubs and Districts to disseminate information quickly, efficiently and cost effectively. Through the use of online publishing, items such as the District
Directory and the District
Governor's Newsletter, Club
Directories, etc. can now be "published" online at little or no cost to
the club
or district. Through the various
Rotary web sites, news is quickly
made available.
- Sharing of Projects & Ideas: As clubs have established a presence on
the Net, they have showcased their
various community and international service projects as well
as various effective fund-raising ideas. This information
resource has
given clubs around the world new ways of offering service and
raising money to fund their projects. Several projects such as
the "Tree of Joy", Duck Races, "Rose Day" and “Beer Fests” and Wine Cellar Raffles have been
replicated by hundreds of clubs around
the world.
- Improved Relationships Among Clubs / Districts: With Email communications, no Club and no Rotarian is "too far away". Distance is
not a problem. It is as easy to contact a Rotarian across town as it is one
who lives half way around the world. No club need feel
that it is "out in the middle of nowhere"
with ECOMM that provides nearly
"instant" access. Clubs and districts are able
to work together easily
on Global Grant Projects, plan and organize
Vocational Training Teams, increase Youth Exchange participation, further the work of
Rotary volunteers, and expand on the work of additional
programs such as "Youth Service". All of this can be implemented and accomplished
in record time through ECOMM.
- Further Rotary's Mission and Goals: ECOMM, in particular the Internet, allows Rotary to make its goals and missions visible for the entire world to see as they visit Rotary sites around the world. Through this means of communication, humanitarian efforts of clubs and districts around the world are being broadcast for all to see and hear. As an NGO, Rotary's part in the furthering of world peace and understanding is enhanced and improved through the use of the many new forms of online communication. Even Rotary’s PolioPlus program has benefitted from this type of communication
- Online Learning: Following the lead of District 5110 which launched its online District Leadership Academy program in 1998, numerous other districts have adopted the program. Curriculum, course work, assignments, discussion groups and exams are all handled online and all materials for the courses are available only online (including printed material from Rotary International, all of which can be downloaded). With District 5110 continuing to lead the way, the Leadership Academies are now hosted on the Canvas LMS platform used by the majority of educational institutions around the world, thereby raising the level of the educational aspects of the Academy program. District’s that are “geographically challenged” have found the program to be particularly beneficial in helping to train individuals who will eventually serve at the district level in positions of leadership. In 2006, Rotary District 5010 (Alaska, Yukon Territory and Far East Russia) adopted the Leadership Academy program. In 2007, PDG Vladimir Donskoi (Rotary’s first Russian District Governor) translated all of the academy material into Russian and then set up a Russian Academy web site. In 2008 there were 20+ graduates from the Russian Academy; in 2009 there were 40+ graduates; in 2010 there were 80+ graduates and in 2011 40+ individuals graduated from the District 5010 Russian Academy. The program has significantly changed the manner in which Rotary clubs operate in Russia.
- Eradication of Polio: With Rotary and its
GPEI partners being “this
close” to eradicating polio,
creating awareness worldwide of the need to
achieve this goal is being
aided through all types of electronic and
multi-media
communications. The “grand
illuminations” of the End Polio
Now logo on historical landmarks
around the world coupled with
increased
media participation has raised awareness to record levels and it continues to climb. In
2013, Rotary launched
an
endeavor to create
the “World’s Biggest Commercial”. Tens
of thousands of Rotarians around
the world participated in the “This Close to Ending Polio” commercial
as
well as many non-Rotarians. By the end of the year, the commercial broke
the Guinness World Record
as the “biggest” commercial as
well as creating worldwide awareness
of the extensive effort to globally eradicate
polio.
- Social Networking: Since 2008 Rotary’s presence
on the various social networking
sites (YouTube, FaceBook,
LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram,
etc.) has had incredible growth. In
fact,
Rotary is one of the fastest growing
groups in all of the social networks
it participates in. This means
of communication is targeting
the 30-50 year olds who frequent
the networks. Using this type of networking, RI hopes to not only grow its membership but
do so by increasing its ranks with younger,
committed members who will
be the foundation for Rotary’s future.
- TRF’s New Grant Model: On
July 1, 2013, The Rotary Foundation’s “New
Grant
Model” went global. It
was the first day of an entirely new way of operating and doing business
with The Rotary Foundation
and it could not have been achieved without electronic communication. It has been
5 years
since the launch and many changes have occurred and will continue to occur in the future.
Electronic communications has had a significant impact
on Rotary worldwide during the past 221 years and it will continue to have an
even
greater impact in the future. It
is changing the manner in which
Rotary International and The Rotary
Foundation operate and do business on a day to day basis. There will always be the hierarchical
(top-down) structure of Rotary . . . .
International, Zone, District, Club, but because of Electronic Communications
the pyramid is being reversed
as
clubs are now able
to more easily and efficiently
communicate and work directly
with each other - club-to-club
- in a rapid and efficient
manner to achieve their goals and objectives.
Rotary at
the International level
(Secretariat / International
Headquarters) has taken note of this and the overall impact
it is having on the organization
and it is adapting to these changes
accordingly. That adaptation may be slower than most would prefer, but
it is happening and because of
it, Rotary is slowly but surely becoming a “bottom
up” organization.
The 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 Councils on Legislation each passed resolutions that were Internet and/or Technology / communications related. All of these were passed by overwhelming margins. The Council urged the Board of Directors to continue to expand Rotary’s use of Technology, the Internet, and Electronic Communications as it will provide a more efficient method of doing business with substantial cost savings. One item of particular interest in 2001 was the Council’s recommendation to the RI Board that they establish 20 “Cyber Rotary Clubs” as pilot projects to determine the feasibility/viability of such clubs. The first such club was approved by the RI Board in June of 2001 and was chartered in late 2001. It is located in District 5450. It is called “Rotary eClub One”. Its address is http://www.rotaryeclubone.org. In addition, the 2004 COL approved “makeups” at eClubs as official Rotary makeups. Rotarians are encouraged to visit an eClub web site, participate in one of their programs and do an official makeup. In August 2002, the Board of Directors issued an International call for 20 more Cyber Clubs to meet the ever-growing need to find new and unique ways to increase membership while at the same time allowing individuals to participate in Rotary who would not otherwise be able due to location, lack of mobility, heavy travel schedules, etc. Today, Rotary eClub One has over 1400 Rotarians worldwide who do make ups on the eClub One web site each and every month! The 2010 Council on Legislation formally approved eClubs as a legitimate form of Rotary club. This resolution passed along with several others that will continue to streamline Rotary and its overall operations through the use of electronic communications.
Now that we are
in our “Second Century of
Service”, the face of Rotary is changing.
Rotary as a worldwide organization
is undergoing a remarkable evolution
and a great deal
of that evolution and change has
been brought about by the impact
of Electronic Communications. It
is the “new” Rotary and we are
all a part of it. Today,
“the Future of Rotary is in
our hands” and as we “build communities and bridge
continents” we will do a great deal of it electronically and
virtually.
With the technology of the PRESENT
We are building Rotary for the FUTURE"
This is the legacy of Rotary’s Electronic Communications"
Harriett Schloer
Rotary District 511
September 1995
 Rotary International |  District 5450 |
